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Interesting facts about Nokia

Nokia, the one-time king of the mobile market is now facing a stiff challenge from Android and iOS powered mobile devices. A little introspection into the Nokia brand reveals a few eye-catching facts. Here are some which make up a good read:

1) The world’s first commercial GSM call was made in 1991 in Helsinki over a Nokia-supplied network, by Prime Minister of Finland Harri Holkeri, using a Nokia phone.

2) Nokia is sometimes called ‘aikon‘ (Nokia backwards) by non-Nokia mobile phone users and by mobile software developers, because ‘aikon‘ is used in various SDK software packages, including Nokia’s own Symbian S60 SDK.

3) The name of the town of Nokia originated from the river which flowed through the town. The river itself, Nokianvirta, was named after the old Finnish word originally meaning sable, later pine marten. A species of this small, black-furred predatory animal was once found in the region, but it is now extinct.

4) In Asia, the digit 4 never appears in any Nokia handset model number, because 4 is considered unlucky in many parts of Southeast/East Asia.

5) Earlier Nokia phones do not automatically start the call timer when the call is connected, but start it when the call is initiated. (Except for Series 60 based handsets like the Nokia 6600 and onwards)

6) The ringtone “Nokia tune” is actually based on a 19th century guitar work named “Gran Vals” by Spanish musician Francisco Tárrega. The Nokia Tune was originally named “Grande Valse” on Nokia phones but was changed to “Nokia Tune” around 1998 when it became so well known that people referred to it as the “Nokia Tune.”

7) Residents of the Gulf countries find it a bit hard to remember the model number of a Nokia phone. Instead, they prefer to call a particular model by a name. Nokia 6600 is better known as ‘Panda’, 6630 as ‘Faris’, 6680 as ‘Shaitan’ etc.

8) Since manufacturing its first model in 1982, till date Nokia have come up with more than 500 models of mobile phones, the highest by any manufacturer.

9) It sold about 126 million pieces of the most popular black & white model Nokia 3310 and Nokia 3330, with 3310 being the first Nokia mobile phone without an external antenna.

10) About three years ago, Nokia used to manufacture about 210 million handsets every year which, if calculated, comes to 6.5 phones each second. This figure has now gone down due to decrease in demand and immense competition in the mobile market.